Insufficient breast milk has been a major concern for moms over the years. In a survey conducted in Germany, insufficient milk supply was found to be the number one reason for premature breastfeeding. This was followed by cracked nipples, ineffective suckling, milk stagnation, baby’s lethargy, mastitis, flat nipples and pain. The first thing we want to explore is: are you really lactating enough? Or better said: is your baby getting enough breast milk? The point to focus on is not that mom is producing milk, but that the baby is eating milk. Because the baby eating milk is what makes mom’s breasts produce milk. Sometimes, just by talking among mothers, mothers realize that all children are like this, not just mine, and then the “problem” they are struggling with is no longer a “problem”. The human mind is easily influenced by the advice of relatives, friends, neighbors, and, of course, “experts,” and then she puts her own instincts aside and is confused by all the advice. Therefore, the first step to increase breast milk is to increase confidence. First question: She doesn’t sleep on breastmilk, but she sleeps on formula. You sleep only 2 hours on breastmilk and 4 hours on formula. 60% of mature breast milk protein is whey protein, which is digested primarily in the intestines and empties quickly in the stomach. Whey protein is highly bioavailable, thus effectively reducing the burden on the kidneys. 82% of milk protein is casein, casein in white is a large, hard, dense, extremely difficult to digest and decompose curd. Excess casein produces a higher renal solute load, placing a heavier burden on the baby’s kidneys and is unsafe for babies. It takes 60% longer for babies to digest formula than breast milk. This is also a burden on the baby’s gastrointestinal tract. So, it’s not the hunger-resistant ones that are good! Just like none of us want to eat compressed cookies. Even though it is hunger resistant! Breast milk that meets the normal physiological needs of babies is the best. In terms of humans as a species, it’s normal for babies to eat every 1-2 hours or so, and more frequently during the surge. The second question: my child can’t sleep well on breastmilk, and wants to eat again after half an hour’s sleep! He hangs on the breast to eat all day long and wants to eat again after finishing. The first thing we need to check is whether the child’s breastfeeding posture is correct. Posture that is incorrect (nipple deformation, pain) may affect the baby’s ability to remove milk from the mother’s breast. Incorrect posture can be caused by poor latch-on, incorrect tongue wrapping, etc. There are objective reasons (tongue tie problems, etc.) and also because of the posture between mother and baby. Secondly, if the child is in the first week of life, we recommend that the frequency of feedings is 8-12 or more on average. If some children only eat 4,5 times a day, others hang on to mom all the time to eat. This is the time for the mother to work with the doctor to assess the child’s weight, stool output, urine volume and color, and the child’s mental state. If everything is normal, then let the child “wake up and eat”. Thirdly, there is a period of frequent sucking, usually 24-48 hours, before the onset of milk production (the second stage of lactation). If the child has been fine since discharge from the hospital and just suddenly eats very frequently, consider the surge phase. It usually appears in children at 3 weeks, 6 weeks, 3 months, and 6 months. Q3: My child can’t breastfeed for more than a few minutes before he starts to get irritable! This is usually seen in children who have been “bottle-fed”. Because of the fast flow rate of the bottle, the child is confused about the flow rate of the breast. It is important to realize that the flow rate of the breast fluctuates, starting slowly, increasing with the onset of a milk shower (squirt reflex), and then slowing down after the shower is over, followed by the next milk shower. However, incorrect bottle-feeding can cause the milk to flow at a “fast” and “even” rate all the time. Therefore, it is important to avoid bottles as much as possible for newborns. If you need to use a bottle or spoon because your baby was born prematurely or has weak sucking for other reasons, try to feed slowly. And for the back-breaking mom, choose the appropriate bottle (newborn, wide-mouth), don’t fill the entire nipple with milk, keep the bottle as level with the floor as possible, and slow down the flow rate every few minutes (as if the milk bout is over). And when a child who is already experiencing flow confusion is on the breast, mom can help the flow of milk by squeezing the breast. Sometimes babies start to get irritated shortly after they first get on the breast, and it’s possible that mom’s squirt reflex is too fast and too strong. Mom can let this milk spurt pass before nursing again. Be careful to nurse frequently, not too far apart, and avoid nursing only when the milk is very high. When your baby is irritable, don’t force breastfeeding, but be patient with skin-to-skin contact and wait for your baby to calm down before letting him come to the breast by himself. Q4: I can’t hear the swallowing sound when my baby is breastfeeding. This is most likely because the mom doesn’t know what kind of sound is a swallowing sound. In the colostrum stage, the swallowing sound is almost inaudible, while in the mature milk stage, the swallowing sound is not a gurgling swallowing sound like an adult, but an exhaling-like, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh, heh. (Kittierantz) Listening to the swallowing sound can be very mentally straining for many moms. “When the baby is having a feed (just some sucking action with the breast in the mouth does not mean the baby is having a feed), you will see the baby’s jaw pause before the mouth opens wide enough to close. So a complete sucking session should be: open mouth wide > pause > close. When you have seen a pause like this, it means your baby is getting a big mouthful of milk from your breast.” (Jacknewman) The state of an infant at milk time, alert, eyes wide open, deep and long sucking. Q5: People’s children grow 3 pounds in a month, mine only grows a pound. We are not raising our children to be like other people’s children, but to help him according to his growth pattern. So, as long as your child’s growth curve is going well, there is nothing to worry about. So, mom needs to learn to weigh properly as well as record the growth curve. Question 6: Breasts are always soft and don’t even rise! The basis for determining whether your child is full: 1. urine volume and color. 2. mental state (positive, alert) 3. growth curve (weight, height) You can’t say that if the breasts don’t rise, there is no milk, nor can you easily say that if the milk doesn’t rise, there is a balance between supply and demand. To see if the child is normal in all these indicators, then congratulations! You have a balanced supply and demand! You’ll see a lot of breastfeeding moms around you saying, I don’t get a rise in milk, I can’t express it with a breast pump, but my child is eating and growing well. And usually, it’s the elders who have been breastfeeding for 20 years who will tell you that having milk is only called having milk if your breasts are rising and dripping out, and they just really forget! 20+ years is too long! Q7: I’ve been drinking a lot of soup and it’s not working. That’s right! This is one of the most frequent things I hear come up! Drink soup! You know what? The human body is very sensitive. Do you find that all of a sudden your body will tell you that you want to eat something or that you need to exercise today. Interpreting the signals from your body is very important! And, what are the signals of insufficient hydration? Thirst! So, if mom is feeling thirsty, it helps if we have some soup (not greasy soup)! If you are not thirsty and have to force yourself to drink as much soup as you want, it will just turn into urine. Then, the most important ingredients for milk are water, protein, and fat. So, eating lean meat and fish is helpful, and with soup, the main thing is water, and if it’s a greasy soup, it’s water and fat. Soup is not full of nutrients. If you just drink a lot of soup and have no appetite for other foods, both mom and baby may have a nutritional imbalance. Nursing mothers and ordinary people, the pursuit of balanced and healthy meals can be. Question 8: Breast pumps don’t suck up much! There is a way to measure the amount of milk with a breast pump: hospital grade breast pump, 224 hours every 2 hours and take the average. The experience of many breastfeeding mothers proves that they have been feeding their children well, but when it came time to breastfeed, they couldn’t pump. This is because, their breasts are also well broken in with their child and it takes just as much time to break in with the breast pump. Secondly, even if you are well broken in with the breast pump and your breast pump is specialized enough, it can still stimulate far fewer squirt reflexes than the baby can stimulate. As a result, the amount sucked out is less than what the baby can actually take. Therefore, the breast pump is not a test of the amount of milk. Q9: My breasts are too small, too big and my nipples are short, my sister-in-law said I have no milk! The size of breasts is mainly determined by the amount of fat. So, the size of your cup does not determine whether your child is getting enough to eat. If your cup is small, your child’s feeding intervals may also be shorter. It just means you’ll have to get up a few more times to pour water. And with dimpled, flat nipples, breastfeeding is possible in most cases, especially if you haven’t given your baby an artificial pacifier. In fact, many moms with true inverted nipples breastfeed successfully with professional help. Of course, if you are still preparing for pregnancy, you can have it corrected. If you are already pregnant, then let nature take its course. Yes, that’s what nature gives you. The natural way of feeding (no formula no bottle) will also help you overcome these difficulties. A lot of the situations that make you feel like you don’t have milk may not even mean you really don’t have milk. It’s worth re-emphasizing that when it comes to having no milk, it must be about whether your baby is coming to enough milk. There is no limit to the number of feedings or the time of day, the baby suckles comfortably for mom, and usually in such cases, the baby is growing well and every time he feeds, he is driving mom to produce milk! Of course, there will still be a small percentage of moms who, for one reason or another, often influenced by human intervention, do not get enough suckling from their baby at the breast, making milk production drop. Some moms feel frustrated and some begin to “chase the milk”. I want moms to know that even a little bit of milk counts. So if you think that either I exclusively breastfeed or I don’t, it’s not true.